This invention relates to a musical drum. More particularly, the present invention concerns the employment of a suspension band around the drum shell so as to hold the drum skin tautly in place without piercing the drum shell and thus allowing the shell to vibrate freely.
Musical drums are percussion instruments found in numerous varieties the world over and since the earliest times. Drums have been known to exist in the most primitive tribes of Africa and South America as well as in China, India and Arabia. A large bass drum was depicted on a Sumerian vase of the third millennium B.C. Egyptian drums dating back to 1800 B.C. have been discovered and drums were mentioned in Chinese poems of 1135 B.C.
A conventional musical drum generally consists of two heads (diaphragms or skins) mounted on a cylindrical body. This construction allows the vibrations on one head to be transferred through the air inside the drum shell to the other head and cause such other head also to vibrate. The drum heads or skins are held in place over the ends of the drum shell by drum hoops or rims.
Turning screws, generally six or eight in number, pass through apertures in each drum rim and are screwed into fixed brackets which are mounted at uniformly spaced positions around the drum shell. Tuning of the drum is accomplished by turning the screws into the brackets. This operation serves to draw the drum rim down over the end of the drum shell, thereby applying tension to the drum skin, which is thus stretched over the end of the drum shell. This tuning operation normally occupies some considerable time since each individual tuning screw must be individually turned until the desired pitch or tune is attained.
Some drum varieties consist of only one head, for example, the bongo, the timpani and some bass drums. Other drum varieties include the kettle drum, the dawul, the side drum, the tenor drum and the snare drum, just to mention a few. The snare drum has wires stretched across one of the heads; these wires beat against the head when it vibrates and produce high frequency vibrations that add more noise to the sound of the drum.
In most conventional drum systems, the drum hoops which hold the drum heads in place are connected to the drum shell by direct physical attachment. This attachment generally involves piercing, i.e., drilling holes into, the drum shell at numerous points. This is illustrated in many U.S. patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 274,900; 1,284,526; 1,334,334; 1,420,233; 2,548,271; 3,019,685; 3,435,723; 3,439,573; 3,533,324; 3,647,931; 3,724,313 and 3,911,779.
The main source of noise from a conventional drum is the vibration of the drum head as a result of being struck by a drumstick or the like and the sympathetic induced vibration in the diametrically opposed drum head. Ignored in the design of conventional drum systems is the utilization of the shell as a source of residual vibration to add to the tone and output of the drum if the shell were to be allowed to freely vibrate. The aforementioned direct physical attachment of the drum hoops to the shell serves to dampen and eliminate shell vibration.
U.S. Pat. No. 519,914 describes the use of a ring B surrounding drum shell A. There is no provision, however, for spacing the ring away from the drum shell to form a suspended shell. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 1,284,526 discloses the use of an adjustable band surrounding the drum shell that also does not form a suspended shell.
A drum having window openings in the shell is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,136,201. Also internal means within the shell serve as a sounding board responsive to sound waves from the vibrating drum head (auxiliary sound reproducing member) to radiate sound waves through the windows in the shell.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,439,573 relates to a drum design utilizing two shells, one for assembly of fittings and the other shell as a resonator (placed inside the outer shell). The resonator is essentially a floating sound chamber. However, the resonator shell does not support either head--thus acting as a sound deflector rather than a sound transmitter.
A snare drum having a tapered and flanged cast metal shell and a cast strainer mounting means is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,635,119. This drum design does not allow for the suspension of the drum shell.
A snare drum having a body shell made up of two complementary half shells is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,003.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,747 is directed to a lug assembly for anchoring drum heads to the drum shell.
Australian Patent Specification No. 50,942/59 relates to a ring adapted to secure the drum skin to the drum shell.
Australian Patent Specification No. 48,242/79 of Donald Sleishman (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 082,462) concerns a musical drum in which the loading means attaching the drum skin to the drum shell is connected to the shell at various points on the inner surface of the shell, rather than directly attached to the outer surface of the shell. Sleishman's drum design requires, however, the piercing of the drum shell (by drilling holes in the shell) as is clearly shown in FIGS. 3, 4 and 6.
Heretofore, no drum design provided for a truly suspended drum shell. It would be quite advantageous to have a drum shell freely suspended and without piercing of the drum shell so as to provide enhanced sound emanating from the musical drum.